Honkers And Shouters
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In his introduction to this book, the author, Arnold Shaw clearly defines the purpose of his work, "In this book I am concerned with R&B as an indigenous black art form & style - not with its rock derivatives, nor with its revival in the late '60's, nor with soul music. The focus is on the era, post swing to pre-Beatles (1945-60)". Thankfully Shaw is not over-zealous in this aim, and where the plot naturally digresses into soul territory he lets the story run its natural course. Indeed one of the most interesting and astute observations on soul music I have ever can be found in his interview with Johnny Otis, and this is covered in some detail on my page entitled Towards a Definition. This however is not the only relevant passage. Shaw takes considerable time considering the birth of early R&B record labels which coincidentally were the labels also recognised for their soul output during the sixties. Shaw goes on to present short biographies of those artists who performed on the cusp of R&B and soul. Artists whose careers may have started in R&B, but as musical trends changed were quick to adopt the newer soul structure. Artists of particular note are Lee Dorsey, Jackie Wilson, Lavern Baker, Etta James and of course the two most influential artists in developing 'soul' from R&B, Sam Cooke and Ray Charles. Finally we should not forget that the entire book is devoted to the 'roots' of soul, the music which was its predecessor and most significant influence. I cannot say that the book is wholly relevant to the soul aficionado, but despite the stated aim of the author there is much that is, it just needs to be carefully sought out and extracted. Unquestionably the book is well written and thoroughly researched. The material is also presented in a very reader friendly way. None the less I found that I was halfway through the book before I could thoroughly engage. This was not the authors fault, because he had done an equally impressive job on the first half as he had on the second. The problem was that the material was far to removed from any area in which I felt familiar. Blues artists of the 1920's were just something I knew nothing about or had any interest in. The book was printed in 1978 and sadly I suspect is now long out of print. I picked it up from one of my frequent excursions to a second hand shop. The author also wrote a book entirely devoted to soul music entitled "The World of Soul" which I would dearly love to read. None the less 'Honkers and Shouters' has important extracts about soul music which would be of interest to the specialist. Not the most important book ever published, but interesting none the less. It is essential for anyone interested in early R&B and also for connoisseurs of Black Music generally. Soul fans should get it if they can, but for the reasons given, it is really on the periphery. |
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Why Not visit the Authors other Website, 'The Alternative Blackpool Website' at http://www.localdial.com/users/jsyedu133/bpool This Site Last Updated 18/05/05
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